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Different strains of pot are displayed for sale at Medicine Man marijuana dispensary in Denver, Friday Dec. 27, 2013.

Tallahassee |A conservative Republican state Senator for Clay County filing legislation to legalize medical marijuana would have been unheard of in past years, but on Wednesday, that’s exactly what happened.

“I think it’s just the right thing to do,” state Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said. “We need to give these parents every tool that is available to provide relief to their children.”

As polling data indicates that medical marijuana is becoming popular across party lines, Florida Republicans have started embracing the idea of a scaled-back form of medical marijuana referred to as “Charlotte’s Web.”

It’s a form of marijuana that is processed down into an oil and can be taken orally. It also lacks the ingredient in more common strains of marijuana that gives smokers the euphoric feeling.

“It does not have the component that makes you high,” Bradley said.

His bill, SB 1030, is co-sponsored by Republican state Sens. Aaron Bean of Fernandina Beach and Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg.

Legislation to legalize medical marijuana has been filed in recent sessions by Democrats in both the House and Senate, but those measures didn’t receive committee hearings.

Bradley said he’s not worried about explaining the legislation to his constituents, a conservative group that voted for Gov. Rick Scott by a 53-43 margin.

“I don’t worry about the politics of these types of matters,” he said. “I look at this through the lenses of a father.”

Charlotte’s Web is a strain that more Florida Republicans are starting to rally behind, pointing to the positive impact it can have on children who suffer from epileptic seizures.

“These are kids who you don’t see them in their 30s and 40s, because they die when they get to be 25,” Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, said.

During an emotional January committee hearing on the issue, families with children who suffer from multiple daily seizures told a House panel led by state Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Shalimar, that they “need solutions quickly.”

Matt Gaetz, son of Don, and state Rep. Katie Edwards, D-Sunrise, co-introduced the House’s version of the bill, HB 843. That measure has 15 co-sponsors.

Many Republicans who support the legalization of Charlotte’s Web say they remain opposed to a wholesale legalization of medical marijuana, including a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in November.

Bradley called the ballot proposal “a blunt instrument rather than a surgical approach to a very complex issue.”

The ballot initiative is being pushed by United for Care, a group funded largely by well-known Democratic trial attorney John Morgan.

The group’s campaign manager, Ben Pollara, says that he is happy to see Republicans come around on the medical marijuana issue, but said Charlotte’s Web does not do enough. He said it does less to alleviate the suffering from diseases like cancer, or those that cause the wasting away of muscle and fat tissue.

Charlotte’s Web “is great for a lot of people, but it can’t help everyone,” he said.